The invention relates generally to a review system that uses location-confirmed reviews of businesses and attractions, and allows the reviewed business the opportunity to respond before the review is indexed and available for retrieval.
There exist review systems that store and index reviews of businesses and attractions from users. Patrons of a business or visitors of an attraction may submit a review that provides positive or negative impressions of that business or attraction. These reviews can be submitted contemporaneously at the location or later at home. The review systems store and index these reviews so that future visitors may review the reviews of a business or attraction before visiting.
One such popular review system is run by Yelp, Inc. headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. Through the use of a Yelp software application (“app”) running on a mobile handset, a user can submit reviews of businesses or attractions that are indexed and made available on the Yelp website or the Yelp app. Yelp's review system allows the reviewed business to respond to reviews that are indexed and available.
There also exist technologies that allow users to identify their locations using handheld devices and nearby local businesses. For example, the Yelp for iPhone version 4 update in 2010 included functionality that allowed the review system to use the mobile handset's location services to identify businesses in the vicinity of the user's location and allowed the user to “check-in” to a business. Other companies, such as Facebook and Foursquare, also offer web and mobile applications that use the mobile device to identify the user's estimated location and allow the user to “check in” at a business in the vicinity of the estimated location. Systems for determining the businesses or attractions at a user's locale are also taught in publications such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,559,977 by Busch for example.
In conventional systems, a user may submit reviews of a business or attraction through a mobile app running on a handset. However, this review need not be done while the user is present at the reviewed business or attraction, or at a time when management of a business can address a perceived problem. Thus, reviews can be submitted away from the business or attraction without affording management the ability to address complaints. This drawback in conventional systems makes it easier to falsify reviews.
Media sources have addressed the concerns with the reliability of reviews in existing review systems. Recent articles indicate that Yelp itself considers 20% to 25% of submitted reviews to be “suspicious.” Further, investigations have revealed that businesses have paid remote reviewers for positive reviews on Yelp. Articles have been written on how to discern paid reviews from authentic reviews.